The spring Grimsby Author Series started with a bang…and a whole pile of snow. The audience was not lacking as guests travelled from as far as Brampton to join the first event of 2024. The evening immersed the audience in the voices of Anuja Varghese and Nita Prose, authors who illuminate and distill voices that are worthy of consideration. In her debut book of short stories, Chrysalis, Anuja Varghese captures the intimate details of personal discovery. Nita Prose, returning with her beloved protagonist Molly, brings the reader into a new tumultuous mystery at the Regency Grand Hotel in her novel, The Mystery Guest.
Anuja Varghese
In 2019 after being let go from a management position she thought would be her “forever job,” Anuja Varghese had a good cry in the car and then asked herself the question, “What is next? What can I do that nobody can take away?” Varghese, author of Chrysalis, decided to write. When Varghese speaks about her collection of short stories, it is with tenderness and familiarity; she writes as though she grew up with the characters in her stories, understanding their deepest desires and beautifully articulates their moments of transformation.
“What is next? What can I do that nobody can take away?”
Anuja Varghese’s stories are haunting, immersive and pensive; Chrysalis highlights family issues, community, sexuality and cultural expectations. It showcases the threatening cost of taking back power for racialized women and also offers reflection upon basking in the voyage of discovering who you are. As a regular along the backroads between Hamilton and Port Colborne, Varghese shares her inspirational observations of dilapidated farmhouses, noting the Niagara region for her gothic pastoral story, In the Bone Fields. From a reading of Midnight at the Oasis, Varghese reminds us that though it has many forms, “this too is love.” From mall food courts, forests, subdivisions, charnel grounds and commuter trains, Anuja Varghese “made the choice to write the truest most fun stories that [she] could.” It is through these original, heartfelt and monstrous stories that the voices of her characters grasp the readers at their core. In 2023 Chrysalis won the Writer’s Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Chrysalis is full of fairytale and horror as a speculative fiction; At its heart it is a reflection of identity and showcasing those who are not seen.
Nita Prose
Nita Prose is the author of bestselling novel, The Maid. In 2022, Prose joined the Grimsby Author Series virtually with her debut novel and we are thrilled to welcome her back for her second book, The Mystery Guest. While on a book tour in London and fielding calls from her publisher, inspiration hit Prose while at a historic castle museum in Brighton. Now, Molly Gray is back as the Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel and has become enveloped within the chaos of yet another mystery.
“I believe we have the power to distill people and bring them back in creative ways.”
In The Mystery Guest, Prose weaves together the past in order to reflect on the future, “I believe we have the power to distill people and bring them back in creative ways,” Prose offers when asked about Gran, Molly’s dear and deceased grandmother. With Gran as her compass and their memories to guide her, Molly must solve the murder of world-renowned mystery author, J.D. Grimthorpe. If Molly’s orderly life was upended in The Maid then she is thrown head over heels in The Mystery Guest. Nita Prose has intentionally let readers identify with Molly’s view of the world – she is the engine that drives the story forward. For Prose, a fascination of Molly “is the invisibility of the job. It is easy to dismiss people and think they are their jobs.” It is through this invisibility that Molly’s perplexing, endearing and relatable character must dive in to preserve the name of her beloved hotel.
When visiting the Author Series in 2022, Prose related the moment the idea for The Maid came to her; while at the London Book Fair. London, thank you for igniting the creativity in Nita Prose, without which we would not have the pleasure of her authorship.
Thank You
Thank you to Anuja Varghese and Nita Prose for writing about the power of identity and reminding us that, “people are never just one thing.” We are proud to include creative writers that offer voices to others. To our sponsors, thank you for your support: The Peanut Mill Natural Food Market in St. Catharines, Sue and Norm McCarthy and Joanne Gaulton. Our wonderful wine sponsor this evening is a Grimsby local, Commisso Estate Winery. As always, we are grateful for our book sponsor, Epic Books. Thank you!
This blog post was written by our wonderful guest blogger Teanne Teeft, thanks Teanne!
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